Saturday, April 12, 2014

Double the battery life of Galaxy S4

The battery life of Galaxy S4 is great, but I want it to be even longer under some conditions, for example, while roaming and using it as a WiFi hotspot for my Miix. After some search, I bought a 6200mAh battery with back door on ebay for $11. It was shipped from Florida and it arrived after 2 days.

The thickness of the battery is double of the original, i.e., 10.8 mm vs. 5.4mm. Therefore, its actual capacity is more likely to be 2x of the original, 5200 mAh. Still not bad, especially for the money.

The new weight is still very acceptable at just 6 oz, well the new back door does add bulkiness to the very slim body of S4.

Some friends told me that these cheap batteries do not hold their charges after 1 month or 2, let's see. All I can say now is so far so good and for just $10 I do not worry much. There are some 7200 mAh ones on ebay for $30. The extra $20 does not worth the higher labeled capacity, but I wonder if their performance lasts longer? $30 is kind of too risky to try.

[update 04/19/2014] The Anker 5200 mAh battery gets very good reviews on Amazon, cost only $10 more than above no-brand ones. Anker even makes a whopping 7800 mAh one, if that's interesting to you.

No, it is fake. It charges and works, but its capacity is very low. I returned for a replacement, but the second one is exactly the same. I have returned both for a refund. I bought an Anker instead. The Anker is good, very good. I'll post about it soon.